Random postings on politics, economics, history and anything else that is not technology (for that, see my other blog). My postings on non-technology subjects will be necessarily coloured by my background in technology, so apologies for that. But then, that's the unique perspective it gives me :-).

Thursday, 12 September 2013

Cultural Relativism Is Nonsense - Barbarity Is Barbarity

In a horrifying exposé of a mediaeval practice, an eight year old Yemeni girl has died of "internal injuries and heavy bleeding" after having been essentially raped on her wedding night. The practice of having underage girls married off (often to older men, and often in exchange for money) seems to be very prevalent among Muslim communities in Asia. Such marriages also occur among backward Hindu communities in India, e.g., in the state of Rajasthan where it is estimated that about one-fourth of girls are married before they are 18.

What saddens me as much as this phenomenon itself is that criticism of such barbaric practices is often derailed on flimsy grounds. For example, when Westerners criticise these practices, they are attacked as racist and xenophobic. Sometimes, other Westerners oppose such criticism too, under the misguided philosophy of cultural relativism, believing that it is wrong to criticise other cultures since we do not understand them.

This is nonsense. This is not about Western culture against Eastern culture. This is civilisation against barbarity, plain and simple.

Ethnic people have an important role to play here. We should stand up against barbaric practices when they occur among our kind, so that no one can deflect criticism by crying racism.

Specifically,

Forced marriages are evil and should be made a crime in all countries

Marriage of under-age persons is evil and should be made a crime in all countries

Marital rape should be recognised as a concept and made a crime in all countries

Cruelty and lust should be condemned by all societies

Here is one brown man who is willing to stand up and condemn all of these practices.